Chapter 18 - NEW RULES
The new house ran on rules.
Not Vanessa’s kind.
Real rules.
No shared passwords.
No unlogged visitors.
No one changed Leo’s schedule without telling Richard and me.
No adult got automatic trust because of a title.
When Leo stopped waking up screaming, the rules no longer felt excessive.
I accepted the new contract because it finally had boundaries: normal hours, paid leave, independent reporting authority, and a life outside the Hale house.
One afternoon Richard found me packing my bag at five.
“You’re leaving on time.”
“That is usually how fixed hours work.”
He smiled.
“I’m learning.”
“So am I.”
He hesitated.
“Thank you.”
“For leaving?”
“For making me build a system that doesn’t depend on one good person catching every fall.”
That stayed with me.
Because he was right.
For months everyone had called me a hero.
I hated it.
Heroes are useful in stories because they make people forget systems failed first.
Leo should never have needed me at the bottom of those stairs.
A few weeks later, Ortiz visited with one final box of property returned from evidence.
Inside was Leo’s wooden train.
The same one Vanessa had placed on the stair.
I stared at it.
Richard asked, “Should we throw it away?”
Leo heard him.
“No.”
He took the train.
Rolled it across the floor.
Then pushed it under the couch.
“Train hide.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
Richard laughed too.
The sound felt strange.
Normal.
That night, Leo fell asleep holding a different toy.
I covered him with a blanket.
On the shelf above him sat a framed photograph of Claire.
Not hidden.
Not replaced.
Part of the truth.
As I turned off the light, Leo murmured, “Anna?”
“Yeah?”
“Camera gone?”
I looked toward the new ceiling camera outside his room.
“No, sweetheart.”
He frowned.
I added, “But cameras don’t decide if we believe you.”
His eyes closed.
May you like
I stood there a long moment.
Because that was the lesson none of us could afford to forget.
